Installation problem(s) with "Proof" [resolved]

[derrickruthless]

Hi LinuxBBQ,

I am attempting to install the XFCE 4.10 spin "Proof" onto my Dell D410 laptop. I can launch the live USB and it runs just fine, but when I run the BBQ installer, partition, and install grub it doesn't boot. I end up at an "error:file not found" grub rescue screen. I partition my /dev/sda drive with /dev/sda1 containing my one and only primary ext4 partition. I tell the installer to install grub onto /dev/sda in the BBQ installer.

I have no other OS's on the machine. Anything I'm doing wrong?

I even tried it in a virtual machine on my desktop and couldn't get it booted after the installation completes.

Any tips/help would be much appreciated! I love the site and the I'm still shocked at how memory-efficient "Proof" is... :)

Thanks,

-Derrick

[wuxmedia]

hi.
just thinking aloud here, have you checked the boot flag on your hdd?
(use gparted, rick click, flags - boot)
i guess that wouldn't affect a VM though.

[derrickruthless]

Hi,

Thanks for the response!

Yes indeed, the /dev/sda1 partition is flagged as 'boot'.

-Derrick

[machinebacon]

Hi Derrick and welcome :)

Sounds like GRUB wasn't installed at all. Can you follow the post from here: http://www.linuxbbq.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=1151#p1151

Boot into a live session from the stick, then create this file as root and move it to /usr/bin/grubrepair

Then, still as root, chmod a+x /usr/bin/grubrepair

Then run it. The things you enter are then /dev/sda for the first question and /dev/sda1 for the second. Finally, reboot and pray ;)

(sda is boot, not sda1)

[derrickruthless]

Hi Derrick and welcome :)

Sounds like GRUB wasn't installed at all. Can you follow the post from here: http://www.linuxbbq.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=1151#p1151

Boot into a live session from the stick, then create this file as root and move it to /usr/bin/grubrepair

Then, still as root, chmod a+x /usr/bin/grubrepair

Then run it. The things you enter are then /dev/sda for the first question and /dev/sda1 for the second. Finally, reboot and pray ;)

(sda is boot, not sda1)

Thanks for the help BBQ master.

I attempted the fix as instructed above to no success. I'm wondering if the installer is actually terminating before it completes the OS installation. After I tell it "yes" to install, it closes within seconds and all the terminal windows disappear. I had assumed it as completing the installation, but perhaps it is exiting due to an error?

I'll have to play with it more tonight when I get off work. :)

Thanks again!

[machinebacon]

The bbqinstaller should take an estimated 3 minutes, not shorter. Can you next time post the error log here or on http://linuxbbq.org/zerobin and link it here? That would be great!

cat /var/log/bbqinstaller_error.log

Edit: just to clarify, we use the bbqinstaller to install Proof :)

[derrickruthless]

The bbqinstaller should take an estimated 3 minutes, not shorter. Can you next time post the error log here or on http://linuxbbq.org/zerobin and link it here? That would be great!

cat /var/log/bbqinstaller_error.log

Edit: just to clarify, we use the bbqinstaller to install Proof :)

Here is the output! Thank you for helping me with the bbqinstaller. I unmounted the drive in Gparted after formatting and still no success.

Output of bbwinstaller_error.log

Exit due to error: 1
See /var/log/bbqinstaller_error.log for details.

bbq@grill:~$ cat /var/log/bbqinstaller_error.log
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try 'grep --help' for more information.
mke2fs 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
mke2fs 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
/dev/sda1 is mounted; will not make a filesystem here!
bbq@grill:~$

[wuxmedia]

^ this is from a USB? - odd that sda1 is mounted...
are you going directly to the installer, not - for example - using files via thunar/filemanager before installing?

[machinebacon]

Can you post the output of

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l
sudo blkid

Something's strange here.

[derrickruthless]

Can you post the output of

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l
sudo blkid

Something's strange here.

sudo fdisk -l

bbq@grill:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders, total 117210240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000b8b0b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 96731135 48364544 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 96731136 117209087 10238976 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 96733184 117209087 10237952 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 513 MB, 513802240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 62 cylinders, total 1003520 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04141a29

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 1003519 501728+ b W95 FAT32

sudo blkid

bbq@grill:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="500MB" UUID="6868-085A" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="336d033e-fd3f-4c03-ab52-a246e1533236" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="189c6783-a132-4a57-b301-73eb048b502a" TYPE="swap"

[machinebacon]

Looks good, so you run sudo bbqinstaller
then in this order:
- 3 (no need for partitioning)
- Y (better verify the fstab)
- /dev/sda (where to install GRUB)
- hit Enter (the question about /boot)
- /dev/sda1 (the question where to install)
- 4 (ext4 as filesystem)
- no (to encryption)
- leave blank (for a separate home)
- y for fstab using UUID
- hostname is optional
- yes (to start installation)

Good luck :)

Edit: if it still fails, please force an unmounting:

sudo umount -a

and try again. It should not mount /dev/sda1, so neither Thunar nor mc (the terminal filemanager) should be opened before.

[rhowaldt]

is your sdb1 your stick? i was wondering why it is vfat formatted. did you use the 'dd' method to get it on your stick? not at all certain whether this matters at all but might be worth a try.

[machinebacon]

^ Rho, I guess that's unetbootin or a similar USB creator, should usually (!) not make a difference: I have tested unetbootin and LiveLinux (LiLi) under Windows and they both created working USB sticks (formatted "FAT32" as by the tools). Though it would be interesting to know if we can rule this problem out.

[gurtid]

Wow - i've always formated to fat32 (or fat) prior to dding because i thought that's what was supposed to be done :D

- say it ain't so

sorry got a bit carried away with txt formatting

[edits] colours

[apprentice]

don't know if this helps

is your sdb1 your stick

this is on a newly dcfldd'd hard drive
iso dd'd to stick
when i installed proof the stick was sda
my hard drive was sdb which i had pre partitioned from live
which is where it installed to

i have never seen that before

[derrickruthless]

I have no idea why it was happening, but I was able to successfully install "Proof" last night via the bbqinstaller by picking up another flash drive and using "dd if=/path/to/downloaded.iso of=/dev/sdX" instead of Unetbootin.

It may have been a problem using UNetbootin or the flash drive itself?

Not sure, but many thanks to everyone who helped out! I'm proudly running "Proof" and customizing at the moment. :)

-Derrick

[rhowaldt]

Derrick, glad you got it to work. sometimes these things happen, could be UNetbootin's fault or maybe just something else that went wrong. we might never know, but the important thing is you got it to work. Have fun with Proof, and please remember to mark this thread '[Solved]' by adding that to the titel (edit 1st post).

[machinebacon]

@derrick: both can be problematic. ;) The blkid says your stick is 500MB in size (fdisk reports 513MB, which I find quite odd), can you confirm this? If it is a bigger stick, you should probably re-format it (using the HP USB Format Tool in Windows, for example) and recreate its default state.

Edit: Seems 513MB is a normal size as reported by fdisk, so ignore my post ;)